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Here's another blog post that started life as a response to a private email Jeremy Davis (JedMeister on the forums) sent me regarding various things we could try to recruit more developers as TurnKey contributors:

Last week we finally published our interview with Adrian Moya, who won first place in the TurnKey community development contest. Basil won the respectable 2nd place and though we didn't know it at the same, more of his contributions would make it into the TurnKey library when we more than doubled it in the TurnKey 12 release.

Two years ago Adrian Moya won the first TurnKey community development contest. We decided it would be a good idea to interview him so the community would get to know him better. Unfortunately we made the foolish mistake of deciding to postpone the interview until his submissions made it into the TurnKey library as official appliances. In retrospect I think it would have been best if we did the interview right after Adrian won the contest. Hindsight is always 20/20.

The stakes couldn't be higher. In truth, all three of our winners will lavish in (varying proportions of) unending fame and riches, but only one man will get the exotic, elusive embodiment of the Django pony goddess. Oh ye most blasphemous infidel will ask, why thee persists in worshiping a pony, thus pink and plush. Hush I say, tis not any earthly pony we worship, but the very symbol of the holy bond that ties all open source communities together. So say we all!

It all started with a happy accident

I have a confession to make. This contest, which is directly fueling the largest expansion of the TurnKey library since the project started, is a happy accident. It wasn't something we planned. It wasn't on our summer todo list. It was just one of those unexpected, spontaneous ideas that light up the inside of your brain like a flash bulb, and demand you take action. Or else! (you won't get any sleep)

Back in June we had just launched the TurnKey Hub and were getting ready to focus all our energies on releasing TKLBAM. I logged into PayPal and noticed our donated beer budget had a sad little beer belly. It was just sitting there, giving me an accusing look. I felt guilty. Surely all those people who donated expected we would put these funds to better use. That's when it hit me. It was too much to buy beer, but not so much that we couldn't risk it all on a fun experiment...

Over the last few months donations have been trickling in and gradually piling up. Since there's a limit to how much beer we can reasonably drink we've been brainstorming ideas for using that money to help the project.